


Under The Sea

by Moonlitgems



Series: Moon's Eremin Week 2020 [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ereminweek2020, Ghosts, Not Romance, Scuba Diving, Slight horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23383489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlitgems/pseuds/Moonlitgems
Summary: It was just supposed to be a simple vacation with a small group of his friends. His favourite part would be the diving trip they'd won. Somehow, he found himself meeting a strange man under the deep, dark, waters.
Relationships: Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager, Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Moon's Eremin Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681852
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: Ereminweek 2020





	Under The Sea

# Day 2

## Ocean Creatures

* * *

He was in danger of dying from embarrassment. This was just supposed to be an innocent vacation with his four college friends. By some unfortunate events, it had turned into a couples get away with him as a third wheel. His two friends, Jean and Mikasa, were going steady, which wasn't a problem with him. They were an extremely cute couple, but he hated feeling like he was intruding. They kept telling him that he wasn't and reminded him that they'd invited him because they wanted to all go together.

And yet, he was basically following behind them, while they held hands. It made him uncomfortable, mostly because it originally wasn't supposed to be just the two of them. However, he couldn't find it in himself to not go. Mikasa had won a trip for four people to an ocean side hotel and they figured that it'd be a good way to spend their spring break. Originally, their mutual friend, Sasha, was supposed to come with them.

It ended up just the three of them because their mutual friend, Sasha, had to rush home to visit her family. The ocean-side hotel and the all expenses paid scuba diving trip all, but made up for the discomfort of being the third wheel. He'd been taking lessons and was excited to finally be able to go out and actually do it with his friends. Especially out in this region. The creatures that lived in these waters were supposed to be extremely beautiful. He'd even brought his underwater camera for that very reason.

He was a Marine Biology major and photography minor. With his internship beginning after their break ends, he would be extremely busy and wouldn't be able to go out on his own to collect photos as often. Especially, underwater photos like this chance. It would be a perfect chance to take some photos for his Senior portfolio. Not only would they work well with his major, but not many of his other classmates have even been anywhere near the ocean. It would be nice to have some animal portraits as well.

“Armin, take a photo of us together by the railing,” Jean said, catching Armin's attention. Armin just laughed and lifted up his camera to take a picture of them holding each other. It turned out cute enough and they seemed pleased with it. They sat down on the edge seating, watching the other three people that joined them on the excursion.

“Hello, everyone. Can we have your attention,” A woman's voice said, loudly booming over the chatter around them. Armin turned to their instructors, who just came onto the boat and had to take a quick breath. There was a man and two woman standing there. The woman that spoke was a short blonde woman with a nasty scowl on her face. “My name is Annie Leonhart-I am your captain. This is my Co-captain and your instructor, Bertolt Hoover and Reiner Braun. They will be with you in the water, three people per person.” She spoke in a flat tone motioning to each man as she introduced them. The first man was Bertolt. He was extremely tall and fairly muscular. His tanned skin glistened in the sun. Then there was Reiner, a blond man that wasn't quite as tall as his co-captain, but twice a muscular. Armin was honestly impressed. No matter how hard he tried to build muscle, he knew he would never be that impressive. “As per the contract you signed before you entered this boat, you are to obey any order you receive,” She said, crossing her arms, looking at her crew. “Now, Reiner is going to show you some universal signals that you will need to know, while under the waters.” The blond male then began explaining the universal commands in diving for those who might not be familiar. Armin watched as well, despite knowing the universal gestures.

Once all the instructions were given, they started to suit up for their test dive. As he pulled his wet suit on, his attention was drawn away at the distinct sound of something splashing into the water behind him. The sound was clearly something large falling into the water, but there was no other boats in the water. Nor were there any distinct ripples beyond the gentle swaying from the boat.

Thinking it might have been something from their boat, Armin leaned over the railing. Staring down at the shimmering, but dark waters, looking to see if there was any sign of what it could be. As he stared down into the waters, he could see a small school of fish swimming along the surface. Other than that he couldn't see anything but his own reflection. His golden eyes were focused on the school of fish, but something seemed off.

No one else had seemed to have heard it. They simply continued to prepare for their dive. For some reason, he found himself looking back down at the waters. The school of fish was now gone, leaving just his reflection in the waters. An urge to look away crawled into the pit of his stomach as he continued to look at the waters, studying the distorted features. What caught his attention the most were his eyes.

They seemed distorted by the small waves almost looking a different color. For some reason, Armin couldn't look away. It was as though he was hypnotized. The closer he studied his face the strange it seemed to get. Laughing to himself, he went to go back to prepping himself. As he straightened himself up, he kept his eyes on the water. Just then something popped out of the water, startling Armin. Falling into Jean, who was chatting with Reiner.

“Woah-Armin, are you alright?” Jean said, letting out a laugh as he straightened Armin back up. Armin didn't laugh back. What he'd clearly seen was a human's head poking out of the water. It's eyes were a hypnotizing sea foam green, hazed over by a white film. The pale skin clung to bone and was slightly masked by dark strands of wet hair.

“Huh-uh, yeah-I just-” He stuttered mindlessly, trying to push his anxiety away.

“Something wrong,” Reiner said, approaching them with a concerned look on his face. Armin, Mikasa, and Jean were in the man's group, so he probably just wanted to make sure there wasn't any problems.

“Ah-There was a head,” Armin said, in a quiet voice, not wanting to scare the other on the boat. Reiner looked confused as Armin pointed to where he'd seen the head.

“There's nothing there. Don't psyche yourself out, 'kay?” Reiner just grinned and patted Armin's shoulder as the blond nodded.

It took him a moment before he gathered the courage to look back at the waters. As he looked back down at the waters, he tried to understand what he just saw. There wasn't anything in the waters now. That had clearly been a human face he'd seen, but he didn't believe it. He had just been listening too many 'Scary True Stories' from his favorite Youtuber lately. While they didn't keep him up at night, the ones about the ocean definitely were spooking him now.

“Everyone ready? Get into your groups.” Reiner practically gave him a heart attack as he shouted right beside Armin.

Something told him that he shouldn't get into the waters, but he was already geared up. He wouldn't be able to explain why he was suddenly so hesitant to dive, either. He'd been so excited in the days leading up to their trip, so his friends would worry. Still his mind wouldn't let him brush it off. It wasn't possible that he'd seen a person, anyway. They were in the middle of the ocean. There was no one missing from the boat and there wasn't any way the person could have hidden and jumped off the boat to scare them. No other boats could be seen as he moved toward his group.

It was foolish, but he looked at the captain of the boat, wondering if he should tell her what he'd seen. Of course, he knew that she would probably laugh in his face. No sea worthy captain would believe him. So, he brushed off his anxieties and moved toward the diving edge with Jean and Mikasa.

Once under the water, the world turned into a silent wonderland. There weren't many fish, but he could take pictures of the other divers. He swam up to his friends taking a photos of them as the swam around looking at the few fish that were swimming around them. He could feel the stress melt away as he enjoyed the dive with his friends.

When his eyes caught site of a colorful fish swimming above him, he pulled his camera to his goggles. The sun shined down through the waters, causing the colors to reflect against the fish's beautiful scales. He was about to take a photograph, when he felt hands on his wrists. Out of reflex, he snapped a picture and almost dropping his camera in the process. There in front of him floated a man, the same gleaming eyes he'd seen at the side of the boat. They no longer were a filmy white, but a vibrant emerald. All he could do was stare back at the man, wondering how he was under the water without gear.

Despite how dark it was, he could clearly make out the man's slim triangular face and what seemed to be a solemn expression. They stared at him, taking in his simple peasant styled shirt and black pants that he could really tell what type of pant that were. His face was stock white, standing out, as though it were glowing. The feeling of dread came back to him full force as he realized that the strange man wasn't breathing or even holding his breath. His body was froze in place, only moving to keep himself from sinking.

Memorized by the eyes Armin could pull his gaze away. A quick smile formed on the man's face as the man's fingers ran up his arms. The touch was icy cold, far colder than the water that they were in. All the hair on his body stood on edge at the man's touch. His heart rate sped up to what he'd deemed an unsafe as the man's hands brushed against his neck. It was out of terror. The man had no gear, nor did he seem to be holding his breath.

The cold hands cupped his cheeks, reminding Armin that he needed to breath. Taking a deep breath, knowing that it was extremely unsafe for him to do that underwater. He tried to pull away from the man, wanting to swim back over to Jean and Mikasa. The man didn't let him, however. One hand grabbing Armin's right arm and the over placed over Armin's mouth piece. There was a slight tug on it before Armin panicked, thinking the man was about to pull his mouth piece off. An arm grabbed him causing him to jerk his head away from the man. There Reiner was giving him a look of concern. The next thing he knew, Reiner was pulling him up toward the surface, only giving him enough time to decompress.

“You okay,” Reiner said, holding Armin up as though he thought Armin was too tired to continue to swim on his own.

“Yeah,” He said, feeling extremely calm despite what happened, but he wondered why Reiner called him up. “Um, was there something wrong, sir?”

“You were going down too far. You almost got separated from the group,” He said, frowning slightly, mostly because he had to scold one of his customers.

“Oh-” Armin didn't even realize that he'd sunk away from the group. “I didn't realize that I was sinking,” He said, feeling his body shake slightly.

“You sure you're okay,” Reiner said, looking confused as to what was going on.

“Yes. It's just-there is someone down here with us,” Armin said, glancing around them as he spoke. “He didn't have any diving equipment or anythi-”

“Why don't you get back on the boat and I'll grab your friends.”

Reiner interrupted him before diving back down into the water. Armin just numbly nodded and moved to climb onto the boat, where Annie was waiting, looking concerned. Annie helped him onto the boat, while Armin was lost in thought. There was no way that he had imagined that man in the water. The feeling of their cold hand's on his cheeks. They way the man had put his hand over Armin's mouth piece gave him chills. It was as if they were going to rip it right out of Armin's mouth. Annie asked him why he was sent back to the boat, pulling him away from his thoughts, Armin began explaining things to her. She listened carefully, all while examining Armin's equipment.

“Your snorkel is damaged,” Annie said, looking up at him with a hard stare.

“That's not possible. It was perfectly fine, when we did the equipment checks,” He said, looking down at his mouth piece. It was indeed damaged causing Armin to stare at it in shock. It was right were the man had grabbed it. “How did that ha-”

“It's pretty simple, if you caught it on something, but-” Annie paused as Jean and Mikasa climbed onto the boat, with Reiner following behind them.

“Are you alright, Armin,” Mikasa said, pulling her goggles off her concerned face. Armin simply told them what had happened and they cut their dive short, waiting for the other's to finish up. Everyone played the man under the water off as Armin hallucinating or joking around. But Armin was sure that he saw the man. He could still feel the cold touch, despite sitting in the scorching sun.

After everyone returned to the boat, Armin studied each person's face. None of them even remotely resembled the man he'd seen down there. A part of him wanted to beg the captain to double check to make sure that they didn't leave the man behind. If the man was truly there, he'd surely be dead, if they left with out him. However, he did not say anything, watching the spot he first seen the human face as they pulled away.

When they got back to the hotel, Armin felt as though all his energy was sucked out of him. He was slumped against the taxi door, as they drove back to the hotel, barely able to stay awake. Jean and Mikasa had to help him into the hotel and sitting him on a chair in the lobby. They wanted to take Armin to the hospital, but the blond refused to do so.

“Why don't you go up to the room and rest,” Mikasa's voice sounded as she rubbed Armin's back. “We'll bring some food up, later.” Armin just nodded numbly, feeling his body growing heavy. Jean helped him up before Armin told him to go with Mikasa, because he could take care of himself. It took a bit of convincing, but Jean and Mikasa left him to go up to their hotel room.

He paused as he passed the information board of the hotel. A missing person poster caught his eyes, causing him to pause. He didn't know why it caught his eyes, especially when he was so tired. His body was completely froze, once he studied it further. The summer air went icy as he realize the missing person was the exact same man, he'd seen under the water.

Eren Jaeger, age 20, missing for five months, last seen wearing a tan long sleeve peasant top and black dress pants-was the information that resided on the missing person poster. The photograph showed the same long brown hair, the same deep sea green eyes. In life, those eyes seemed beautiful to Armin. He simply couldn't pull his gaze away from the poster.

His legs gave out from under him, leading to a receptionist to help him back to his feet. They took him up to his hotel room, making sure he was inside before leaving. Armin simply couldn't stop thinking about the incident. The man under the water-how no one else saw him, despite not even being five feet away from their instructor. Just the thought of it made him shudder. All he could do was lay down on his bed, quickly falling into sleep.

Later on, he was looking at the photographs he'd taken during his dive. Mikasa was in the shower and Jean was sitting out of the balcony, having a beer, leaving Armin to sit alone in their room. His photos all turned out well. That is-until he looked at the picture of the fish he'd taken before meeting the strange man. You could clearly see the fish in the picture, however, it was clear that there was long wispy strands of what was hair. And those emerald eyes peering at him just above the edge of the frame. Trying to curse, Armin's voice disappeared. All he could do was stare at the photograph in disbelief. Moving to the pictures he'd taken from the boat, while the others were popping up. There, just five feet away from the boat, was a clear image of the missing man, Eren Jaeger, . Armin quickly shut the computer and made his way out onto the balcony, needed some fresh air.

“You finally decide to join me,” Jean said, but Armin ignored him, leaning onto the railing staring out into the ocean.

All he could do to stop his racing heart was tone out all the things around him. His thoughts were on whether or not he'd truly seen the man. If he had, they left him there. If he had not, then what did that mean for Armin. He didn't know. All he could think about was the expression the man had worn, while staring at Armin.

“What the fuck is that guy doing,” Jean said, causing Armin to jump at the sound of Jean's voice. He looked to where Jean was pointing.

Down in the crowd there was a man standing perfectly still. Armin felt like he broke out into a cold sweat. There was a figure standing among the crowd. His body looked soaked in water, his hair hung messily in his face. The pale skin seemed to glow in the setting sun's light. Eren was standing on the beach, looking right up at him, with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so~ Not necessarily Underwater creatures, but I found myself up listening to too many Youtube videos of 'True Scary stories', and their were stories about oceans and 'beings' being seen in the deep ocean blue. So, this is what popped into my head.
> 
> Now, I don't know if the Youtuber likes people advertising their channel so I'm not going to leave a link, but I will say I quite like Lazy's voice. It makes any stories scary and I can listen to him for hours. ~<3


End file.
